Cliches and Original Ideas
by fantasy1290
Summary: Tired of the same old Harry Potter fanfic stories? Want some original ideas for stories to write? Most Harry Potter stories have the same plot lines over and over again. Why waste time reading them all when you can read what is going to happen in them all right here! Includes commentary on why they all simply don't work. Your one stop shop for readers or authors.


Author's Note: If you are like me, you've gotten tired of reading the same boring and predictable harry potter fanfic plotlines out there. Most of them unfortunately have the exact same few general plots and since they usually begin the same, I've learned that once I see the signs for them, I immediately stop reading. It's just no fun reading the same story made only slightly different over and again. If it really is different, I'm likely to read it just because of that. I value stories most for originality and holding my interest with new ideas. Keep in mind that everything expressed here is my opinion and may vary from your own personal views.

At the bottom there is a list of challenges and original story ideas for anyone looking for some to write your own story with.

Here are the main cliches:

Gringotts inheritance cliche

Harry went to Gringotts and found out that he had a ridiculous amount of money and owned a great deal of the wizarding world, he was the heir of at least 1 of the founders, and had a large amount of latent magical powers, only most of them were locked up by the evil Dumbledore as a baby so he couldn't use them. Dumbledore was also embezzling his money and probably was paying off Ron, Hermione, and the Weasleys to spy on him and convince him to follow him and the greater good blindly. There was also mention of at least one marriage contract or at the very least he was being given love potion to fall in love with Ginny Weasley.

Harry using his recently discovered new powers suddenly becomes super powerful and learns a ridiculous amount of magical spells over the summer probably all of the spells in all of his books with ease, and despite not being allowed to use magic over the summer, he gets emancipated or found some other loophole so that he could.

He then went to Hogwarts and took out Dumbledore and everyone else who tried to stop him, and then beat Voldemort.

Commentary: First of all having Harry have that much money especially when he usually in these stories owns large percentages of very well known companies such as Apple or the Nimbus broom company and not be told about it before hand is pretty hard to believe, if simply being that rich isn't unbelievable enough. "You own 60% of all the magical money in Britain Harry." Come on people, he can be rich but owning more money than all the other wizards in Britain combined? And he and the rest of the wizarding world didn't know about it until now when the goblins told him?

Moving on, there is then the issue of Harry being the heir to at least one of the founders if not all 4 along with Merlin.

Since the wizard population would be rather small and it's been over 1000 years since the founders, he probably by now actually would be the descendant to at least one of the founders if all of them had children. With that in mind there are probably many "heirs" to each of them to be found in the magical world. The idea that each of the founders also have their own vaults laying mostly untouched until Harry comes along to get all of their treasures is also pretty difficult to believe.

Then there is his ludicrously huge amount of magical power that he has as well as magical powers that for some reason Dumbledore regards as a threat and manages to lock up without him or anyone else knowing the entire time. Since there have been way too many opportunities for this to be found out even if Madame Pomfrey was in on it during her numerous checks of him, Dumbledore would be even bigger an idiot than in canon because Harry was bound to find out and since he is apparently super powerful he should be able to easily beat him in the inevitable event that he finds out.

Having the Weasleys or even Hermione spy on him or keep harry from reaching his full potential, using funds that Dumbledore embezzled from harry is also too stupid to be believable. Once again, he's bound to find out eventually, even if his so called friends are such jerks and have no consciences even while risking their lives on dangerous missions and spending so much time with him not to tell him they are betraying him. The Weasleys in particular taking bribes is kind of hard to believe since Harry actually tries or wishes to help them out financially on numerous occasions of his own accord and they refuse. Such complete jerks feeling he owes them for some reason would never refuse such offers.

Having Ginny lacing him with love potion I feel is just people's pathetic attempt to explain away why Harry ended up with ginny as they hate her so much and are mad he ended up with her.

So now Ginny is that desperate? I'll admit that other girls did try to use love potions on him but Ginny just wouldn't have been a prime candidate to try that.

Since Ginny was currently dating Dean, and before that at least one other boy Michael Corner, she already had herself occupied with a guy.

Maybe she really was just an attractive girl that happened to have red hair but otherwise didn't look like his mother at all as so many of these anti-ginny stories allege? Couldn't he just be attracted to her and not have her need to give him love potion?

In these super powerful or godlike Harry stories, suddenly Dumbledore, Voldemort and everyone else are suddenly so weak and Harry so strong that he defeats them with ease. In addition to having things be too easy for Harry making for a rather boring story in my opinion, it is also kind of stupid how Harry gets to be so powerful that he can say take on Voldemort and all of his death eaters without a wand and kill all of them. Even if Harry were that powerful he wouldn't be so cocky that he would try it without any help as he often does in these types of stories.

Cliche Story 2

Wrong boy who lived

Harry had some sibling, a twin brother or sister or just some other random made up sibling who is thought to be the child who lived and his parents end up surviving and putting all their attention on that sibling and not Harry who is totally neglected, sometimes abused.

Usually Harry still does a lot of great things, but his glory seeking sibling somehow always gets the credit.

Eventually the truth came out and everyone finds out that it was Harry who was really the boy who lived and his awful parents felt really bad but usually Harry is fed up with them by that point and no longer cares about them.

Commentary: Okay so if I were to assume for a second that everyone in the wizarding world was fooled and thought that it was Harry's sibling who defeated Voldemort, which I suppose is possible since wizards are apparently so easily fooled (Pettigrew faking his death and sirius being labeled a death eater, quirrell with voldemort in the back of his head, etc.) You still have to deal with the hard to believe idea that Harry's parents are such scumbags that they would totally ignore or abuse Harry simply because he has a famous sibling.

You've got plenty of celebrity children but I doubt most of their parents suddenly stop loving or caring about their other children unless they were complete jerks.

Also it doesn't appear that Harry's celebrity status in canon ever is strong enough for everyone to practically worship the ground he walks on as is often the case for Harry's siblings in these cases. Instead he faced a great deal of controversy and being disliked by a large portion of the student body numerous times like after the dueling club in 2nd year, the triwizard tournament, all of 5th year, etc.

Harry isn't also going to be totally ignored or hated by everyone simply because he has a famous sibling. If anything he would end up more like Ron, who has a famous friend but its not like he can't make friends of his own or prejudiced against for that sole reason. Harry might get a bit jealous but he isn't going to be completely forgotten. Often times in these stories his own classmates in his same house can't even remember his name after spending several years with him in very small class sizes.

Saving Gabrielle in 4th year

After saving Gabrielle in the lake, as evidently her life was actually in real danger as the merpeople hate her and would have killed her, Fleur, Gabrielle or both are so grateful that they enter into a relationship with him and usually bond themselves to him in some way.

Commentary: So suddenly Gabrielle's life is in danger as apparently the people that put her there, including the judges completely forgot that veela and merpeople hate each other so much that they'll kill her. Kind of an important detail not to know or forget.

The merpeople also decided not to kill her for a few hours allowing Harry to get to her but had she not been rescued by Harry at that time, she would have been killed rather than allow her to be taken back by a triwizard tournament representative soon after.

Of course such a sacrifice on Harry's part is deemed so valuable that either Fleur or Gabrielle decide that the only good enough reward is sex or to be his girlfriend or bondmate or they have so little control of their bodies that they simply have to bond with him at that time, totally giving up many of their freedoms. Right because that's totally believable that they would offer themselves so easily.

Forced Bonding

Through some magical accident or some random event he is suddenly bonded to or forced to be with someone through some magical means to at least one person. Generally such a person he hates such as Malfoy, Snape, or Voldemort.

Commentary: Despite the unlikelihood of such a forced bonding, he also learns to love someone who usually is already a completely awful person. Since so many of these stories also involve Harry being with a male, his sexual orientation is also suddenly changed and not only that he manages to forgive each of them and also becomes their mate. I guess it would be possible and I say possible loosely for that to happen with him and Draco but with Voldemort! Absolutely not, besides it being totally gross. He killed his parents and is completely evil and not even really human, he'd never allow himself through any method to become Voldemort's mate. I can see Harry killing himself before he allowed that to happen. I know I would. Can I say ew enough times?

Re-reading of the books

Harry and a bunch of other characters start reading all of the harry potter books again and offer occasional commentary.

Commentary: Funny how I am offering commentary of commentary to the Harry Potter books. In addition to generally being rather boring having to pause so frequently for commentary that may or may not be warranted throughout the books I've already read so may times anyway, it usually involves characters who are dead. So what is this heaven where they have nothing better to do than to read the harry potter books again and voice their anger of just what harry went through as a kid or is this a sort of end of lost moment (lost fans know what I'm talking about) or some sort of purgatory where they do the same thing?

Mary sue or random made up character story

A random made up character suddenly joins the harry potter gang and goes with them on their adventures. Said character usually can do no wrong.

Commentary: I suppose there is nothing actually wrong with this plot idea other than that it has been so overdone, although I've never been able to enjoy these even when I read my first one with this plotline. I guess it's either because there are more than enough characters already in the stories that you can mess with and don't have enough character background or because the authors of these stories usually do such poor jobs developing these characters.

Raised by someone else

This story involves Harry being raised by someone else besides the Dursleys and causes him to act differently because of it.

Commentary: While there is the same initial idea, generally these stories are different enough that they can still be interesting. Don't really have any problems with these just yet but the idea is still rather cliché.

Vampire or werewolf Harry

Harry is bitten by a werewolf or vampire during childhood and spends a great deal of time fighting them.

Commentary: In addition to being too close to twilight to really be original in many cases, there is also the problem of just how believable it would be that Harry would run into a vampire or werewolf while living with his muggle relatives away from where vampires and werewolves usually would be found I would think. Right in the middle of a muggle housing neighborhood away from the forest or other wizards and of course Harry is the one bitten against all odds. So the one magical being that finds him is actually a mutant who changes him into a mutant as well?

He also has no problem hunting down and killing all of his own kind and is also able to hide his transformations and problems associated with what he is from everyone.

While Remus might have managed it for awhile when he was at Hogwarts, somebody still had to know about it for it to have worked, in this case Dumbledore.

Harry is Naruto

Naruto ends up somehow getting transported to Harry's world and either fuses with, replaces, or becomes friends with Harry.

Commentary: As Naruto is easily the 2nd most popular of fanfictions I can see why this would occur so many times, but it still has gotten really cliché and boring for me to read. Harry and Naruto just don't seem to mix well in my opinion especially in such a way as they are often done where Harry is suddenly out of the picture and Naruto is now the main character. We can't just get rid of Harry in such a fashion, as it is a HARRY POTTER fanfiction, not a naruto with harry's friends fanfiction who do essentially the same stuff.

Love Story

For some reason Harry suddenly realizes that he loves a different character and manages to woo them or they love him and manage to woo him.

Commentary: Since his various love interests can vary greatly these stories can still be quite original and interesting yet are still very cliché especially with the main ones: yule ball where he as a 14 year old wizard finds someone that he totally falls for and ultimately becomes his best friend and lover forever. I suppose that you actually can find your future spouse at 14 at a dance even though very unlikely. The other in the harry wooing girl category is the famous harry and hermione being left alone in a tent scene. Since when reading this in the 7th book even I was wondering why they never started something (really Rowling you used the I think of her as a sister excuse) I can't really blame anyone for making this cliché, and this is one I never seem to get tired of no mater how much I read it. The only crime with this story idea is if something doesn't happen while they are alone in the tent especially if Hermione looks like she does in the 7th movie.

On the other side you have girls that are so in love with Harry even ones he doesn't actually really even know very well suddenly will do anything to be with him.

I suppose since fan girls try this all the time, I suppose it's possible even though most fan girls don't usually go to that extreme. It's still pretty unbelievable though for the most part.

Evil Harry

Harry suddenly snaps and decides to become evil, and do bad stuff. This usually involves him taking slaves and abusing them and killing anyone who gets in his way.

Commentary: It would have to be a really, really bad psychotic break for Harry to fall so far so quickly after being a generally good guy for so long. The fact that he would happily abuse girls and women he knows and get sadistic pleasure from it or kill anyone who gets in his way without remorse is pretty unbelievable.

Azkaban Harry

Harry is framed and wrongfully accused and sent to Azkaban where everyone fails to believe his protests of innocence. They eventually find out the truth but by then Harry is fed up with all of them and won't have any of it and tells them all to get lost.

Commentary: You would think that everyone would have learned by now that things aren't always what they seem and simply believe Harry when he says he was framed and is innocent. Every single school year has at least one seemingly good person who turns out to be either a villain or a villain who turns out to be a good guy. The ones with Sirius failing to believe harry are always the worst as surely Sirius would believe him after his wrongful conviction.

Wouldn't his closest friends especially Ron and Hermione seriously question why Harry would suddenly do something so unlike him especially when he tells them he is innocent? With magic there are many different ways in which he could have been framed.

For everyone who would like to write an uncliche story, here are some general story ideas you might want to try that I came up with but simply don't have time to write myself:

Harry wakes up trapped in the body of the British prime minister. Now in his current situation he now has the choice on whether he wants to reveal magic to the muggle world as Voldemort has just taken over magical Britain or if he decides it just isn't worth the risk to be able to defeat him. He also has to worry about convincing other muggles or his wizard friends who he really is since he can't do magic while still a muggle.

Trying to escape from the death eaters in the department of mysteries he gets inside the room that is apparently full of love, the most powerful force in the universe. Instead of being killed he ends up taking all of that love into him as his mother's love ends up protecting him from it somehow and only makes him stronger only with unforeseen results. Harry now feels the emotions and thoughts of others and feels deeply concerned about others including some of his enemies that may just be misunderstood. He might also have someone go in the room with him that ends up also causing something to happen between them.

Harry and Dumbledore switch places and lives with each other and both of them think they could do a better job in their lives than the other. This could also be done with a different character as well but a lot of them have been done before.

Harry dies, becomes a poltergeist or ghost and starts up a friendship with Peeves and together they manage to defeat Voldemort and do what he couldn't in life.

Time freezes or slows down, allowing Harry and at least one other person to take advantage of the situation for however long it lasts or as long as they have control of it.

After defeating Voldemort when he was a baby, Harry is taken by death eaters who all regard Harry as their new master who they believe will lead them to even more greatness based off of a prophecy they heard. Harry has to learn how to deal with being brought up in such a way as being regarded so highly and taught of wizard superiority.

The Dursleys decide to raise Harry as their own son and treat him the same way that they treat Dudley. Harry ends up very overweight, lazy, and spoiled but in this story the Dursleys don't have a problem with magic or letting Harry go to Hogwarts to learn magic. It does however affect his actions at Hogwarts, doing things that a Dursley-like Harry would do.

Instead of fighting all the various dangerous magical creatures he faces, he tries to be their friend and treats them as overly large pets. Think a more Hagrid like Harry and just what he could do with tamed magical creatures like that if he had an ability to tame them and get them to do things for him.

Harry finds out that Voldemort cloned himself as he must fight an army of Voldemort clones.

In this story idea, most wizards are even more racist than they are in canon and goes on to include a deep prejudice toward black people. Going against the wishes of many of his friends and wizarding society, he starts dating Angelina Johnson a black girl. This could also go the other way where Harry is born black and must adjust to being prejudiced against and how he deals with all the animosity towards him.


End file.
